Congrats to Katherine Heigl on getting to leave the dumbest show on television

Great, funny show. Lauren Graham is a luminous beauty.

Until, of course, Logan cheated on Rory and she accepted the explanation that "I thought we were broken up. So IN MY MIND, I wasn't cheating."

And fratdorks everywhere took notes as she said "OK . . ."

 

Every single character on the show isn't realistic.

A bunch of whiny assholes who I watch with my wife every week because the train is so far off the tracks its turned into a comedy.

As for Knight, the next time we see him will be in in the next reality show by produced by Chachi and Wayne from the Wonder Years.

 

Is he friends with them? That seems an unlikely group. I know Baio and the older brother from Wonder Years are really close friends, but I can't see TR Knight running in that group.

 

How exactly did Heigl and Knight decide to turn a 8-character drama into a 15-character dramedy? I missed that ABC memo where T.R. Knight demanded they add Lexi, Marc, Callie, Erica the part-time lesbian/full-time bitch, Arizona Capshaw Speilberg Robbins, The Dances With Wolves Woman Fraudulently Portraying Someone With Asperger's Syndrome, Owen The Werewolf, Melissa George, and Denny The Ghost to the cast. Shows that constantly have to add characters to keep people interested are bad shows with bad writing.

My God. Yes, clearly, the show needs more characters.

And at some point, there has to be some acknowledgment on the writing staff that the "I see myself in this patient, and when they talk about themselves, they're really talking about me and my problems" approach to writing has become a stale, tired cliche. And that has nothing to do with the Heigl's bitchiness, or T.R. Knight's inability to stop whining. The show has become almost a weekly tribute to narcissism. It's not surprising that the Sex and The City crowd has claimed it as their own and decided to defend it to the end because Carrie Bradshaw and Meredith Grey are the two most self-absorbed female characters in the history of television. Every time another character speaks, you can almost see Meredith's brain thinking "Is this about me? Because if it's not, then I don't care."

If I were Heigl, and someone handed me a script where the Cheif said to me...

"The contest is a lion fight. So chin up, put your shoulders back, walk proud, strut a little. Don't lick your wounds, celebrate them. The scars you bear are the signs of a competitor. You're in a lion fight, just because you didn't win doesn't mean you don't know how to roar."

... I would probably call my agent the next day and see what the hell I could do to get out of my contract.

 

Also, this is exactly why I still watch the show. Because it's almost hard to look away at this point, and it's funny to make snarky comments about how bad it is.

THIS WEEK ON GREY'S ANATOMY: An icicle falls from the room and impales Christina Yang!

 

See, Gilmore Girls was a genuinely funny show with some great and interesting fringe characters. Watching it die really sucked.

Gray's Anatomy? Like Heroes, it's now a great opportunity to play Mystery Science Theater.

 

To each his own I suppose. The show as always had a ton of characters and the dialogue, for the most part, has pretty much always been in the realm of the Chief quote you have there.

It's simply a matter of execution.

Regardless of writing, it can't help the show any when Heigl and Knight have major roles and show zero interest on-screen or off.

 

Re: Congrats to Katherine Heigl on getting to leave the dumbest show on televisi

And everybody stands around debating how to remove it. Luckily, she's a stone-cold bitch and her body temperature isn't causing it to melt so there's time to talk about it. But, finally, Owen the werewolf just walks in and yanks it out. Because, you know, he was in Iraq and is a dangerous rule-breaker.

(DD, I'm subscribing to your newsletter.)

 

This thread took an alarming turn.

 

DD,

You are being waaaay too hard on Shonda Rimes.

First of all, she has written some great stuff over the course of the show. There have many a great show veer off into weird soapy land. In fact, don't they all?

As a writer, I'm sure you understand the tremendous amount of pressure to "keep producing" and "outdo what you did before." Not only that, but when a show becomes a hit, some of the top writers on a staff leave the show for more money elsewhere. It waters down the writing talent.

Another problem is that when a show becomes a hit, the actors egos get out of control. Can you imagine having to manage all those egos? (Apparently, Shonda is known to rule with an iron fist.)

Hollywood is an absolutely nuts, crazy enviroment ... and for a black woman to emerge among a sea of white men as the highly successful showrunner of a monster hit... huge accomplishment.

A lot of other black women are probably getting meetings at networks and studios now where they weren't before... because the white male "suits" are wondering if she could be the next Shonda.

 

I guess I'm a little shocked that any of you bothered to chime in for two whole pages after reading "All due respect, but if you defend Grey's Anatomy as this point, you are a fool." Love those posts.

 

I think this show is a case of where getting that coveted post-Super Bowl slot hurts more than it helps. If you'll remember, Grey's was on after the Steelers-Seahawks Super Bowl with the episode where the guy had a bomb or rocket (I don't remember) stuck inside him (all the promos: "What is code black???"). They probably picked up a lot of new viewers, but the ridiculous plot opened the barn door for a bunch more stories like that.

As for what pisses me off about this show the most: I can't stand the dialogue. At least three or four times a show, characters will break off into soliloquies where they latch on to one particular phrase and just run it into the ground. I sit there and watch and can't get one thought out of my head: Nobody talks to people that way. It's just so freaking unnatural sometimes.